Here’s how much these popular upgrades for your home will cost

Kitchen remodeling is a popular and expensive home improvement project.

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Sooner or later, you could join the millions of Americans who remodel or renovate their homes every year. Perhaps it is around that time that you find your kitchen says 1975, but you would prefer to cook in the moment. Or you’ve decided to have a walk-in shower rather than a bathtub to create the illusion of more space in the bathroom. Whatever the impetus, the thought crosses your mind: maybe it is time to improve the look and value of your home.

The reasons for home remodeling are as varied as the projects homeowners undertake. For services such as home improvement projects, maintenance and emergency work in and around your home, the costs have always been uncertain and difficult to assess.

“We all want to pay fair prices regardless of the goods or services, but how can you tell what is fair – especially if you don’t understand what drives prices in the first place?” according to HomeAdvisor’s True Cost report. “When it comes to home services like installing a deck, repairing a roof, or remodeling a bathroom, most people don’t understand what’s behind the prices they have to pay.”

According to Mischa Fisher, author of the report and chief economist at HomeAdvisor, a home improvement marketplace, home improvement spending has increased across the board, and this includes both DIY expenses and hiring professional contractors. It is noteworthy that the two types of expenditure actually support each other.

“About half of all households that do home improvement projects do home improvement and then use a professional contractor to do the additional work,” said Fisher. “However, this trend varies by age. People aged 55 and over are 50% more likely to hire a professional than people between 25 and 34 who are more likely to do part of the project themselves.”

HomeAdvisor has reissued a new and improved Annual True Cost Report that helps you answer the question of whether your professionals are worth their price tags. It also examines the cost of the main planned projects in 2021 and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on conversion prices.

The three most important projects of 2020 were interior painting, bathroom remodeling and new floors. This comes from the HomeAdvisor State of Home Spending 2020 report, which found that 35% of households that completed an improvement project were doing some kind of interior painting, while 31% were remodeling a bathroom and 26% were installing new flooring.

Interior painting is a not surprisingly popular project, according to the report. At an average cost of $ 2,007, it is the third lowest project in the top 20 projects after installing home office networks and smart home devices. However, unlike network and smart home devices, interior painting can have a massive visual impact on your home. This balance of high visual impact and relatively low prices can explain the popularity of some of the top projects.

“Projects with visual value are projects that can make a dramatic visual difference in your home at a low cost relative to the size of the project,” said Fisher. “These are projects like landscaping and painting, both inside and out. When you complete projects of this type, you get a great visual impact at a relatively low cost, and get a visual change at a good price. ”

The HomeAdvisor report said, “The affordability sweet spot and great visual impact are also likely to be the reason for the relative popularity of flooring ($ 4,680 and third most popular project), landscaping ($ 2,389 and fourth most popular project), and exterior painting (3,291 USD and sixth elongated project) most popular project). These projects are inexpensive and very popular, which makes them projects of “visual value” as they usually create a great visual impact at a relatively low cost. “

Of course, not all projects with high popularity and high visual impact are what we would normally consider cheap.

Bathroom remodeling was the second most popular project with a significantly higher average cost of $ 13,401. Similarly, kitchen remodeling was the fifth most popular project with a much higher average cost of $ 35,317. These two projects are both expensive and popular, which is why HomeAdvisor commonly refers to them as lifestyle projects.

Prices are constantly changing in every industry, and home service project prices are no exception as a direct or indirect result of the pandemic, according to the report. In 2020, add-ons, cabinets, and cabinets saw the biggest price increase. Project prices increased by 49%, 38% and 30%, respectively, from 2019.

“Prices for most home improvement categories have risen significantly since the pandemic began,” Fisher said. “The cost of new cabinets has increased by 50%. Pantries / cupboards and additions are about 30%; Landscaping, siding and bathroom renovations have increased by around 15%. This increase in costs is quite high compared to many other industries. “

Fisher found that total costs can increase for several reasons: higher material prices, higher labor prices, or consumers choosing larger and / or higher quality products. He said, “What often happens is that it’s usually a combination of all of these.”